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Notorious activist investor Carl Icahn has re-energized prospects for a Yahoo! deal now that he’s amassed a giant stake in the company and is taking steps toward a possible proxy fight.

Icahn has contacted many of the candidates that Microsoft was planning to propose for Yahoo!’s board to see if they were still interested in running for election – but he’s met with some resistance, The Post has learned.

Icahn, who reportedly now holds 50 million shares of Yahoo!, or a 3.5 percent stake, has until tomorrow to nominate an alternate slate of candidates to the board.

But one proposed nominee who spoke with the mercurial billionaire said that without a guarantee that Microsoft will come back to the table there was little incentive to sign on.

“If there’s no buyer for Yahoo!, why be on the slate?” this source asked rhetorically.

Microsoft has given no indication that it is interested in revisiting a Yahoo! deal since withdrawing its bid May 3. To the contrary, executives have stated that they have “moved on” and are working on organic growth.

Moreover, sources said Microsoft’s financial and legal advisers on the Yahoo! deal are no longer actively engaged with the company.

Yahoo! has been holding parallel talks with Time Warner’s AOL about a deal in which they would combine, forming an entity in which Time Warner would invest in exchange for a roughly 20 percent stake.

Icahn famously challenged Time Warner’s management to shake up the company a few years ago, leading sources to speculate that he might be more interested in pushing Yahoo! into an AOL deal rather than one with Microsoft.

The source said that was a path for Yahoo! they wanted no part of, adding dismissively, “That’s not a plan for Yahoo!”

Despite the resistance, the source conceded that Icahn would likely be able to get at least 3 or 4 of Microsoft’s proposed candidates.

“Yahoo!’s big investors are furious, so there’s real validity in trying to replace at least part of the company’s board,” the source said, referring to the disappointment expressed by Capital Research & Management and Legg Mason after the Microsoft deal fell apart.

Indeed, Yahoo! shares jumped 5 percent, or $1.30, to close trading yesterday at $26.56 – and continued to gain in after-hours trading – on the news, first reported by CNBC, that Icahn amassed a stake.

Included among the list of nominees Microsoft had assembled were: former Nextel Partners CEO John Chapple, former Grey Global Group CEO Ed Meyer, former eHarmony CEO Jaynie Studenmund, former Fox Interactive CEO Ross Levinsohn, and former Adelphia Communications CFO Vanessa Wittman, among others.

Of course Icahn could follow the path he took with BEA – amass a stake, agitate for a deal without nominating a board slate, and then be asked to play an integral negotiating role.